Kogi recommends sack of 111 cooks over school feeding programme ‘fraud’

Abdulkareem Onyekehi, Kogi state focal person of the national social investment programme (NSIP),  says the agency has recommended the dismissal of 111 cooks employed for the national homegrown school feeding programme.

The national homegrown school feeding programme was re-introduced in 2016 by the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari.

The programme was instituted to improve the health of pupils in public primary schools and the quality of educational outcomes.

Speaking during a public hearing on a bill for a law establishing the Kogi state Social Investment Programme Agency, Onyekehi said the government engaged 3000 cooks for the school feeding programme.

Onyekehi noted that some cooks failed to provide meals for school pupils despite receiving payment from the federal government.

“Whatever you do in a public office, it is important you ensure accountability and ensure sanctions in case of fraud,” he said.

“We are coordinated. We have local government coordinators monitoring the programmes and we are also working with anti-graft agencies and secret services that are part of this programme.

“We have had cases where some cooks that are supposed to be preparing meals for school pupils receive money and they will not prepare the meals. We have about 3000 cooks and we have disciplined 111 of them in recent times.

“We recommend them for removal from the scheme and we have reported them to the appropriate authority for the discipline and punishment they deserved. We found out that they received money and they will not prepare meals for our school pupils.”

Onyekehi said some of the cooks who prepared the meals did not follow the prescribed guidelines.

 “We have also made arrests of some people who commit fraud in the various local governments concerning other interventions from the government to cushion the hardship in our country,” he said.

“We are not taking it lightly from anybody. Immediately the agency gets its report, we always swing into action and sanction whoever violates the programme or defrauds the people of Kogi state.”